On Tuesday 13th November we hosted the inaugural meeting of the Welsh Assembly’s Cross-Party Group on Monetary Reform, which was initiated by Darren Millar AM and Julie Morgan AM.

With about 7 Assembly Members present (over 10% of the membership) and numerous researchers, interns and a few members of the public, Ben Dyson explained why the common understanding of the financial situation facing local and national governments is flawed, and why, although it’s been a struggle to find £2 billion to rebuild schools, it was no struggle for banks to create up to £4 billion a week in order to fund mortgages and personal loans.

We saw how the understanding that almost all money is created by banks is being publicly discussed by senior figures at the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and Members of Parliament from each of the big parties. We also saw that of the additional money created by banks from 1997-2007, the bulk went into mortgages and financial markets, with just 13% going to non-financial businesses.

We presented the reforms that could deal with the problems caused by the current financial system:

1) Removing the power of banks to create money

2) Returning that power to a transparent and accountable public body (but sheltering it from political abuse)

3) Ensuring that any new money that is created is used for the public interest and does not fuel inflation.

The video of Ben Dyson’s presentation is below.

The next meeting of the Cross-Party Group on Monetary Reform will focus more on next actions and what can be done in the Welsh Assembly.

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Comments (7)

dave

Simon

Interesting to see how much lending went on property and financial gambling between 1997 and 2007, and very little to the productive part of the economy. Hopefully these Welsh Assembly members will understand and help spread the word. We need more work on the English and Scottish MPs, although with many Conservative MPs having worked in finance, and their party getting a large part of their donations from the City, it is a bit like expecting ex Manchester United players to be a dispassionate referee when their team is involved in a match.

Harry White

Harry White
This a partial reply to Dave’s comment “Where are the questions?” since the Cardiff Group Coordinator will be providing a report of the proceedings Ben’s presentation at the Welsh Assembly.
The Assembly members explained that unlike MPs they had no legislative influence on matters such as the Positive Money Reform Proposals so what did the PM supporters present expect them to do. The writer stated that,at this stage at least, the primary role of the PM supporters was to educate the general public on the need for monetary reform but Assembly members held a unique posdition. They were in a position to educate and influence the thinking of MP colleagues in their respective Parties, Members pf there Local Constituent Branches and any local Union Leaders with whom they may be associated.

dave

I hope any future recordings of presentations can include the question and answer section at the end. I consider this part to be essential for viewers, because it makes it very clear how much the audience actually understood and took away.

vince

Nice presentation Ben.A simple representation of the profound case against leaving our banking system as it is.Hopefully it will not just be dismissed by those attending the meeting…or anyone else who comes across it!